Russian low altitude troop 'eraser' Known as the "Fire Hedgehog" consisted of 88 machine guns. A/C would sweep over concentrations of troops, open the bomb bay doors and let all hell break loose below them.

Interesting idea.
Any idea what aircraft they put it in?

holy moly!

looks like the tail unit of a Pe2?

I believe it was a TU-2

Very interesting photo. I have never seen that before. Looks a bit insane to me - I would not like to be the loader in that bomb bay.

There must be a better way to get the same effect by using fragmentation bombs or fewer but faster firing belt fed machine guns.

Thanks for sharing

There is. It is called AC-130(or 119 or 47):] This is just a rather older version:P Does anyone know, is this thing realy used?

Just imagine the recoil. After a 10 second burst, the aircraft would probably gain 1000 feet in altitude.

Comrade mechanic-private, your mission is to bore-sight this aircraft. Have it ready in two hours.

PPSh-s though? Why? One would think they would mount a better weapon than a bunch of PPShs.
Not that they're bad, just not a good choice for something like this.



Shouldn't be something a plane can't handle. These are SMGs after all.
The AT variants of the JU 88 didn't seem to have to big a problem handling the cannon mounted on them.

Now imagine having to reload all those. 72 rounds a mag isn't very much for this purpose.

I think it's a useless idea though. What's the point of having 88 of them? 3 or 4 high ROF MGs would prove just as effective. No difference between hitting a person with 5 bullets or 47 either way they're dead. Besides they all seem to be firing into the same general area, once again, overkill. Also when an enemy ground attack plane flies so low overhead, it's rare that troops will stand in such high concentration for something like this to have a purpose.

and a Bomb for emphasis

The BAC Canberra / B-57also carried a a ventral gun pac but with four 20 mm cannons

Hectic!

Was this ever used in combat? Or was it merely experimental?

PROPAGANDA, folks. This was probably not meant as an operational weapon. If it was, it likely failed on its first use, like many Soviet "super weapons."